U.S. charges suspect with terrorism, hacking

The Justice Department has charged an alleged hacker in Malaysia with stealing the personal data of U.S. service members and passing it to the Islamic State terrorist group, which urged supporters online to attack them.

The charges, announced Thursday, are the first ever against a suspect for terrorism and hacking, and they represent a troubling convergence of the techniques used in cyberattacks with terrorism, U.S. officials said.

Ardit Ferizi, a citizen of Kosovo, was detained in Malaysia on a U.S. provisional arrest warrant, officials said. He was arrested a month ago, according to Malaysian news media.

Ferizi is accused of passing the data to Islamic State member Junaid Hussain, a British citizen who in August tweeted links to the names, e-mail addresses, passwords, locations and phone numbers of 1,351 U.S. military and other government personnel.

Later that month, Hussain, who went by the nom de guerre Abu Hussain al-Britani, was killed in a drone strike in Syria.

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"Ardit Ferizi is a terrorist hacker who provided material support" to the Islamic State by stealing the names, e-mail addresses, passwords and other data of service members and federal employees and handing the information to the terrorist group, Assistant Attorney General John Carlin said.

According to the complaint filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, Ferizi in June hacked into a server used by a U.S. online retail company. The company's name was not released. He obtained data on about 100,000 people. Later in the summer, he sent the details of about 1,351 military and other government personnel to the Islamic State, "knowing that ISIL would use the (data) against the U.S. personnel, including to target the U.S. personnel for attacks and violence," said the complaint, drawn up by FBI Special Agent Kevin M. Gallagher.

In August, Hussain posted the data with an accompanying tweet: "NEW: U.S. Military AND Government HACKED by the Islamic State Hacking Division!" Gallagher said in the complaint.

Hussain and Ferizi had made contact about April this year, Gallagher said.

Hussain was considered a high-value target and was suspected of helping the Islamic State take over the social media accounts of the U.S. military's Central Command this year.